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MacBook Pro (late 2008 unibody) runs extremely hot when running XP via BootCamp

M

majicman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2007
7
0
Hey guys,

Has anyone else noticed this problem? When I'm running Windows XP Pro on my MacBook Pro using BootCamp, it gets extremely hot. Like, the entire machine, from arm rest all the way back to the screen. In fact, I can almost smell the heat coming off of it. It seems like the fans aren't spinning at all or not spinning fast enough under XP. Any ideas?

Also, I cannot get the backlit keyboard to turn off under XP, just turns all the way down to the lowest brightness. Any ideas?

Thanks!
- Majicman :)
 
Have you installed all the drivers off the Mac Install Disc?

Mine gets hot but all the fans fire up etc plus my back light works as well.
 
Yeah I installed all the drivers. It's only the keyboard. I can turn the brightness up and down on the keyboard, but not off.
 
Fan Control

try to get a freeware like fan control to set your fan speed or to see if its really spinning
 
yea all macs get hot running bootcamp, i guess you should get used to it. the unibody acts as a heatsync, the heat is dispersed throughout the whole body. i wouldnt think too much of it.
 
Thanks guys, but can anyone confirm the keyboard thing? Does anyone else have a MacBook Pro running bootcamp? Are you able to turn the backlit keyboard off or just down?
 
your macbook pro definitely shouldn't be running hot in bootcamp if you aren't gaming or doing anything cpu/gpu intensive. I'm in bootcamp right now surfing the web/chatting and the gpu temp is at 50 degrees celcius (i'm assuming cpu is lower because it's the 45nm process). Make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date and also make sure that your video card automatically throttles down during idle (my 8600m gt is currently at 169mhz core speed and 100mhz mem speed).

Regarding the keyboard lighting, I too cannot turn it off completely, only dim it to the lowest setting.
 
kousuke18 said:
your macbook pro definitely shouldn't be running hot in bootcamp if you aren't gaming or doing anything cpu/gpu intensive. I'm in bootcamp right now surfing the web/chatting and the gpu temp is at 50 degrees celcius (i'm assuming cpu is lower because it's the 45nm process). Make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date and also make sure that your video card automatically throttles down during idle (my 8600m gt is currently at 169mhz core speed and 100mhz mem speed).

Regarding the keyboard lighting, I too cannot turn it off completely, only dim it to the lowest setting.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but an 8600m GT suggests that you don't have the new MacBook Pro, rather the previous generation. I have the new unibody 15" MBP 2.8GHz and when running XP via Boot Camp and it is idle with no programs running, the core temps are running between 65°-71°. Hardly what I would call responsive temperature control utilizing these state of the art Boot Camp 2.1 drivers...
 
MacAdamy said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but an 8600m GT suggests that you don't have the new MacBook Pro, rather the previous generation. I have the new unibody 15" MBP 2.8GHz and when running XP via Boot Camp and it is idle with no programs running, the core temps are running between 65°-71°. Hardly what I would call responsive temperature control utilizing these state of the art Boot Camp 2.1 drivers...
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter if I have the previous generation macbook pro, the video card drivers should still automatically throttle down the speed of the video card when idle. The drivers that come with bootcamp are surprisingly pretty outdated and you should not be using those. www.laptopvideo2go.com have the latest drivers along with modded inf files so that the drivers can be installed on the many different video cards.

you should also install a program called atitool and that will give you information on what the clock rates are on the video card during idle or load.
 
kousuke18 said:
Doesn't matter if I have the previous generation macbook pro, the video card drivers should still automatically throttle down the speed of the video card when idle. The drivers that come with bootcamp are surprisingly pretty outdated and you should not be using those. www.laptopvideo2go.com have the latest drivers along with modded inf files so that the drivers can be installed on the many different video cards.

you should also install a program called atitool and that will give you information on what the clock rates are on the video card during idle or load.
Click to expand...

maybe there are problems between the software (drivers) communicating with the hardware because of the emulated BIOS??
 
majicman said:
Hey guys,

Has anyone else noticed this problem? When I'm running Windows XP Pro on my MacBook Pro using BootCamp, it gets extremely hot. Like, the entire machine, from arm rest all the way back to the screen. In fact, I can almost smell the heat coming off of it. It seems like the fans aren't spinning at all or not spinning fast enough under XP. Any ideas?

Also, I cannot get the backlit keyboard to turn off under XP, just turns all the way down to the lowest brightness. Any ideas?

Thanks!
- Majicman :)
Click to expand...

Without a properly written driver for XP, your graphics card is working at full blast, your integrated graphics card is not an option, your hard disk is spinning all the time, your ram is being accessed all the time, things would get hot--maybe.

This is similar to the chase where linux on IBM X60s, could not make use of the low voltage functionality on the chip, hence the intel chip is always working at full blast.

In my opinion, it is better to upgrade the ram to 4 Gig, and use VMware to run XP.
 
I wouldn't just shrug off the extreme heat.

My (2.16 CD 17") macbook pro had an SMC issue that made the fans vary their speed while running in target disk mode. It got so hot that it permanently damaged the GPU. From then on, any time the GPU got hotter than 122F it got graphic artifacts and weird glitches on screen. If it got too hot, it beachballed, kernel panicked, or just froze up.

If you can't press your hand to the underside of the machine near the vents and leave it there for 10 seconds, it's too hot for the fans to not be sounding like jet engines. They get up to 6500RPM, you''l hear 'em. If not, your cooling system isn't doing it's job and you're running a risk.

This is all my non-professional opinion.
 
majicman said:
Hey guys,

Has anyone else noticed this problem? When I'm running Windows XP Pro on my MacBook Pro using BootCamp, it gets extremely hot. Like, the entire machine, from arm rest all the way back to the screen. In fact, I can almost smell the heat coming off of it. It seems like the fans aren't spinning at all or not spinning fast enough under XP. Any ideas?

Also, I cannot get the backlit keyboard to turn off under XP, just turns all the way down to the lowest brightness. Any ideas?

Thanks!
- Majicman :)
Click to expand...

'Extremely hot' is an open statement. Get istat pro widget, and check out the temperature of your devices. Anything above 70 degrees Celsius, you're asking for trouble.
 
DoFoT9 said:
we are talking about when running under bootcamp, there is no PC version of istat pro so yea kind of a problem there.
Click to expand...

Glad you have noticed. Temperature does not go up and down within seconds. A quick reboot from pc to mac should still show the temperature. Ever thought of that?
 
CaffeMacchiato said:
Glad you have noticed. Temperature does not go up and down within seconds. A quick reboot from pc to mac should still show the temperature. Ever thought of that?
Click to expand...

yes but you fail to realise that mac os x and windows xp/vista handle their heat management very differently. so therefore you cant compare them. yes, straight after an install the temperatures will be around the same.. give it an hour or so and any money windows will be ALOT hotter. now did you ever thought of that?
 
DoFoT9 said:
yes but you fail to realise that mac os x and windows xp/vista handle their heat management very differently. so therefore you cant compare them. yes, straight after an install the temperatures will be around the same.. give it an hour or so and any money windows will be ALOT hotter. now did you ever thought of that?
Click to expand...

We are comparing one physical parameter, that is, the Temperature of the MBP, be it the CPU, GPU, etc No one claims that both OS are the same, lol.
 
Then get CoreTemp to at least see how hot your processor is running. Normally, mine hovers around 45ºC idling in Windows. It only gets hot when I'm gaming.

I use Vista though.
 
I noticed the temperature difference running XP vs. OS X on my unibody MBP as well.

Regular usage in OS X is hovers in the low to mid 60s centigrade all the time. Watching videos or anything intensive like that pushes it to 70 or even 80C (rarely).

Booting into XP, regular usage is upper 60 and lower 70C while gaming pushes it to the lower to mid 80s. Never saw it go any higher than that though. The keyboard usually gets too hot while gaming that I have to plug in my wireless keyboard to play comfortably.
 
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